FATE: advice for a starting GM

[mig el pig]

Hey all,

I'm gonna run a very short adventue (3-4 sessions) for some friends. Most of them never played a roleplaying game but they are intrested in trying one out. Their preference is for SF instead of fantasy and most of them prefer a rule-light system. For the setting i'm going to go with Starcraft since everyone in the group knows it and although I looked into converting 40K Only War to the setting I decided on Fate since it's fast, simple and flexible.

Since it's an intro adventure I'm creating a group of PC's. We're with 5 players so I'm gonna make around 8 PC's so they have some choice.
The adventure is about a group of mercernaries, hired by the Kel-Morian Combine, to help defend a planet against the Terran Domion. The last few months the Combine steadily lost terrain and their presence is reduced to the capital and some islands. During the latest Domion attack the group of PC's got cut off in a small village, all seemed lost but the last message they received was that the Domion forces are retreating. From here it's up to the players what they will do.

I've never run a Fate game but I'm trying to make all characters diverse:

4 example PC's

Marcus 'Grandpa' Borsatus

Aspects:
Confederacy Veteran 2
Old 1
Honest 1
The only good Zerg is a dead Zerg 1

Skills:
Navigate 1
Driving 1
Pigeon Fancier 1
Grenades 1
Bayonet 1
Charm 1
Command 1
Connections (mercenary) 2
Connections (confedeary) 2
Awareness 2
Dodge 2
Calm 2
Gunner (standard weapons) 3

Extra:
Personilzed Modified C-14 Impaler Gauss Rifle 1

Vasquez Gonzales-Sterling

Aspects:
Raised on the Streets 1
I live on the Edge 1
Heavy Weapons-Guy 2
Spanish Fury 1

Skills:
Ferocious 2
Gunner 1
Heavy Gunner 3
Grenades 2
Awareness 1
Athletics 1
Deceive 1
Reckless 2
Thief 1
Herb Lore 1
Gunner (standard weapons) 1

Ryu Kurodoji

Aspects:
High IQ 1
Knife Juggler 1
Operator 2
Engineer 1

Skills:
Fingerspitzen gefuhl 3
Brawler 2
Driving 2
Gunner (standard Weapons) 1
Gunner (Goliaths, Siege Tanks) 2
Awareness 1
Logic 1
Hacking 1
Navigate 1
Wiskey Connoisseur 1
Tactics 1
Jury Rigging 2

O'Neil

Aspects:
Ranger 2
Fearless 1
Quick 1
I've seen it all 1

Skills:
Sharpshooter 3
Scouting 2
Awareness 2
Fast 1
Lock-Picking 1
First-Aid 1
Athlete 1
Toughness 2
Gunslinger 2
Heroic 1
Move Silently 2

Extra
Camo-Cloak 1

Anyone has any ideas for extra cool aspects and skills? Or general advice for running FATE?

Since this is my first time running Fate i'm 'scared' that some skills overlap too much (like athlete and fast or jury-rigging and fingerspitzengefuhl).

[Eisenheim]

Don't worry about skill overlap, in fact, embrace it, let character aspects expand what individual skills can do for them. (favorite example, a player with an aspect about being a star rugby player should be able to tackle people and knock them down with Athletics instead of needing fight or physique to do it)

Why are you pre-generating the characters? It's not bad, but I've found that a good 'session zero' where all the players build characters together and the GM can talk to everyone about their expectations for the feel of the game going forward can be really helpful in having fate run smoothly going forward.

[kyoryu]

Which Fate variant is this? Your skills aren't a "standard" pyramid, and I don't quite get what the numbers next to the aspects are.

I can give some good advice on Core, and the other Evil Hat games, but if this is Strands I'd be of a lot less use. Strands of Fate is just a pretty different game.

[the_david]

Marco Borsato?

[mig el pig]

Which Fate variant is this? Your skills aren't a "standard" pyramid, and I don't quite get what the numbers next to the aspects are.

it's Core, the numbers are just for counting.

For aspects the number is the amount of boxes you have.

For skills:
1 is Average (so skill 0 in game)
2 is Good (so skill 1 in game)
3 is Great (so skill 2 in game)

[mig el pig]

Marco Borsato?

Indeed , it's a placeholder name but I might keep it.

Vasquez Gonzales-Sterling is based on pvt. Vasquez in Aliens, O'Neil is loosly based on 0'Neil of Stargate, etc

Why are you pre-generating the characters? It's not bad, but I've found that a good 'session zero' where all the players build characters together and the GM can talk to everyone about their expectations for the feel of the game going forward can be really helpful in having fate run smoothly going forward.

Normally that's also my way but for an introduction to rpg I find it a lot easier to have pre-gens. Matching agenda's is also difficult (one player works in the theather so weekends and nights are difficult, other's have a day job for which they have to get up early, etc ... so I prefer to make the characters myself so we can get start playing asap.

[kyoryu]

it's Core, the numbers are just for counting.

For aspects the number is the amount of boxes you have.

For skills:
1 is Average (so skill 0 in game)
2 is Good (so skill 1 in game)
3 is Great (so skill 2 in game)

So that's not a default pyramid. The skills are also far, far more granular than the Core default.

I don't know what boxes for aspects mean in Core. Like, it's literally not something I've heard of.

I'm not trying to be difficult with this, I'm just trying to make sure I'm giving you advice that's useful.

So, here's some advice on the characters overall, and some advice on running Fate.

I'll just use one character. So for Marcus, let's look at his aspects:

Confederacy Veteran 2
Old 1
Honest 1
The only good Zerg is a dead Zerg 1

I'd probably write it up more like:

High Concept: Grizzled Confederacy Veteran
Trouble: "I'm not retired yet, damnit!"
Aspect: "Without trust, you ain't got nothin'"
Aspect: "The only good Zerg is a dead Zerg"
Aspect: Pigeon Keeper

In addition to being a bit more evocative, I think this wording might allow the aspects to be used slightly more broadly. It also gives a bit of flavor for the character, which can only help the players with pregens on a one-shot.

I've replaced the pigeon skill with a pigeon aspect, because I think that makes more sense. Unless you can think of a way that he's going to get his way in a scene by using pigeons, I think it's more useful as an aspect, where you can threaten his pigeons, or he can use his knowledge of pigeons to help another skill out.

For the skills, I'd probably shoot for the same number of skills, generally, that Core uses. Specialties are often better modeled as a stunt on top of a base skill rather than breaking things out into separate skills. A few good questions for determining if something should be a skill are:

1) Is this part of what my game is "about"? Your skill list is a strong definition of your game, and so should reflect that.
2) Would it make sense for someone to have this skill as their peak skill? In other words, would it make sense for someone to be known as "the <skill> guy"? If not, consider dropping it.

Skill Overlap is generally not a concern, especially if using a default pyramid. Having a skill at +4, and having it at +2 are *entirely* different things. Really, with a default pyramid, your top three skills, plus stunts and aspects, define your character. People will generally avoid dipping down to their +2 skills, and +1 and +0 may as well not exist. Certainly, someone with a +2 in a skill will take no spotlight time off of the +4.

As far as running Fate...

The biggest two pieces of advice I can give are:

1) Fiction, not Physics

Fate's a game that attempts to model how things work in movies and TV shows and books, not the real world. This is pretty important, as if you use 'how would this work in a TV show?' to guide you, things will typically work. If you use 'how would this work in real life?' the rules will often get in the way. An action isn't a set period of time - it's a camera shot. Aspects are kind of like Chekhov's gun, and kinda like the thing the camera points out at the beginning of the scene.

2) Fiction First

In general, the best way to run Fate is to not overly use game-speak. It's better for players to say what they're doing in terms of the situation in game, rather than in terms of the actions and skills they're using. "I use Notice to Create Advantage and create Weak Spot" is kinda lame. "I look for a weak spot on the enemy's armor" is much, much better. This may seem pedantic or a matter of style, but Fate's rules are more like templates for GM rulings than anything, so keeping the focus firmly on the fiction both keeps things grounded as well as making it more obvious what skills should actually be used.

There's also a ton of info on running Fate in some of the links here, especially in the Rules and Discussions sections: https://docs.google.com/a/wrong.net/...w5s/edit#gid=0


I've written a ton of things about learning Fate as well, coming from a traditional background. A number of them are in the previous link, but someone collected them and turned them into an epub which can be found here:
http://www.evilhat.com/home/wp-conte...k_of_Hanz.epub

[mig el pig]

So that's not a default pyramid. The skills are also far, far more granular than the Core default.

I don't know what boxes for aspects mean in Core. Like, it's literally not something I've heard of.

I'm not trying to be difficult with this, I'm just trying to make sure I'm giving you advice that's useful.

I think I found the problem, the version I have is an old edition. Looking at your character sheet yours is 4th edition?

Gonna check the rules to see which one fits better.

[kyoryu]

I think I found the problem, the version I have is an old edition. Looking at your character sheet yours is 4th edition?

Gonna check the rules to see which one fits better.

It might be a Fate 2.0 character sheet? I think it had boxes for aspects?

The Fate Core PDF has a character sheet in it, and it's PWYW.

[supermonkeyjoe]

The current version of FATE has a SRD at http://fate-srd.com/, if you are playing with complete beginner I suggest using the Accelerated version, it is incredibly simple to pick up and run very fun to play with in my opinion.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

It might be a Fate 2.0 character sheet? I think it had boxes for aspects?

The Fate Core PDF has a character sheet in it, and it's PWYW.

Correct; in Fate 2.0, you had a few Aspects with boxes divided up between them. When you invoked an Aspect, you marked off one of the boxes. IIRC when you compelled the Aspect, you erased that mark.